


Come a Little Closer to the Fire

by shopfront



Category: Sanctuary (TV)
Genre: Camping, F/F, First Kiss, Getting Together, Huddling For Warmth, Mild Hurt/Comfort, Minor Injuries, Missions Gone Wrong, Sharing a Bed, Wilderness
Language: English
Status: Completed
Published: 2019-02-15
Updated: 2019-02-15
Packaged: 2019-10-23 23:33:03
Rating: General Audiences
Warnings: No Archive Warnings Apply
Chapters: 1
Words: 2,942
Publisher: archiveofourown.org
Story URL: https://archiveofourown.org/works/17693270
Author URL: https://archiveofourown.org/users/shopfront/pseuds/shopfront
Summary: Kate has always been more comfortable taking charge in the city. She's good at hunting Abnormals through the sewers, finding a covert route home through backstreets, or hooking up with a new blackmarket arms supplier when she gets in a jam.It's a little harder when they're in the back of beyond and there's no one else for miles. Not exactly her comfort zone. But if her new team needs her, Kate's going to figure out how to step up.





	Come a Little Closer to the Fire

**Author's Note:**

  * For [janetcarter](https://archiveofourown.org/users/janetcarter/gifts).



> Set at an unspecified point early on in Kate's time with the Sanctuary.

It was the cursing that made Kate turn back in alarm. Even if they didn't know each other all that well yet, the words were distinctly more familiar from Kate’s mouth than from Helen’s. But by the time Kate had carefully pivoted, her hands wrapped around a tree branch to anchor herself against the current that still tugged stubbornly at her ankles, it was already too late. The distance between them was wider than Kate had realised, and Helen was visibly wobbling as she searched for purchase in the mossy riverbed.

“Don’t turn back now,” Helen yelled at her. Her voice was barely audible over the sound of the river, but Kate still hesitated.

Not that she would have been able to reach Helen in time anyway, or do anything else to stop it happening. But Helen's yelp and the splash as she finally lost her footing would stay with Kate for a long time regardless. She struggled the rest of the way to dry land as quickly as she could, already scrambling in her pack for rope as she started running down the shore of the river and searched for some sign of Helen in the rushing water.

It was only luck that there was a sharp bend just downstream. It meant the ordeal was over almost as quickly as it had begun, leaving Helen clinging to a steep bit of riverbank and Kate's heart pounding uselessly in her chest. Kate rushed to help Helen out of the water, throwing her rope down for Helen to haul herself up. Though the distance proved difficult even with the extra leverage. The rope quickly grew damp as it twisted through Helen’s cold, numb fingers, rubbing her flesh raw and stinging and making her wince clearly enough for Kate to see from above.

“Just wait,” Kate called down as Helen continued reaching for rocks and footholds on the bank, hissing each time she shifted her grip or slipped a little further down in the mud. "Let me help."

After she'd double checked the other end of the rope was firmly anchored around a tree, she scrambled down to Helen and looped her arm around Helen’s waist. More cursing filled the air as Helen shifted her weight, and Kate realised she could feel Helen shivering - or maybe just shaking with pain and fatigue she realised, when Helen shifted again and started to favour her left leg.

“Lean on me, Magnus. I’ve got you.”

“Thank you,” Helen said tiredly in her ear as she rested her head briefly on Kate's shoulder before rousing herself for another attempt.

“Don’t- Don't mention it,” Kate just replied breathlessly, grunting with effort as she hauled them both back up the bank.

*

By the time night fell a few hours later, all Kate wanted to do was rant about the ridiculousness of tramping through forests in search of Abnormals. In an attempt to stave off temptation, she had cobbled together a small fire and now she busied herself with closely watching over her little pile of burning twigs. Helen fidgeted restlessly nearby, occasionally pausing to stifle a groan of pain when she moved too far.

“You okay over there?” Kate asked for what felt like the hundredth time, not bothering to raise her eyes from the flames.

“Fine, fine,” Helen said, settling. Out of the corner of her eye, Kate watched as she shifted again with a grunt and stretched an arm out towards Kate’s pack. She strained a little to try and cover the distance, but still couldn't quite bridge the gap.

“You could just ask me to fetch whatever you need,” Kate finally said with a huff as she straightened out of her crouch, patience disappearing entirely as she brushed her hands off against her jeans. “Well? What are you trying to get your hands on?”

A strange expression crossed Helen’s face, but at least she stopped moving. “A few more painkillers wouldn’t go amiss,” she admitted sheepishly. “I may have been a little hasty when I packed the medkit back up.”

“No way, do you really think so?” Kate replied. Her voice was heavily laced with sarcasm as she stepped over Helen’s legs, careful not to disturb Helen’s wrapped and propped up ankle from its toasty spot by the fire. But she let her eyes flicker down at Helen's face as she passed. To her relief she found only amusement, so Kate let her lips twitch up in response.

Helen’s hand was already extended and waiting by the time she’d fished the kit out, but Kate ignored it. Instead she poked around for the right pill bottle and twisted the lid off with an unconcerned air; until she went to tip a few out and realised she didn’t know the dosage.

“Er,” she said, pulling a face as she glanced over at Helen - who was starting to chuckle, one hand over her mouth as she held up two fingers with the other. “Right,” Kate continued, carefully tapping out two pills into her palm and handing them over, before reaching for her water bottle and passing that across as well.

As Helen tossed back the pills with a grateful sigh, Kate returned the medkit to her pack. She paused while she was there to thoughtfully tug on the corner of her sleeping bag that was peeking out beneath it.

“Cold yet?” Kate asked as she tilted her head back to survey the smattering of stars that were only just beginning to appear in the sky.

“Freezing, actually,” Helen said, answering so quickly that Kate looked at her suspiciously. Then she looked a little closer and spotted a shiver, and the way Helen had an arm wrapped around her middle, curling in on herself.

Cursing, Kate nearly upended her pack in her rush to pull the sleeping bag free. “You should have said something,” she scolded as she opened the snaps that kept it folded and began to shake it out.

“You were so focused on the fire, and that was really the most important thing you could do to keep us warm,” Helen said. Her eyes were still twinkling with amusement as Kate huffed and struggled with the zipper. “Kate,” she said more seriously when she didn’t get a response. “I'm really quite alright, Kate. Medically speaking I’m only a little chilled, and that’s largely because the sun has just set.”

Kate still glared as she assessed the sleeping bag. Once it was fully unfurled, she let it hang from her hands uselessly for a moment before dropping it. It slipped to the ground with a whoosh of fabric and puddled at her feet.

“Medically speaking,” she muttered to herself, rubbing a hand across her forehead. Then she repeated herself a little louder and pointed a stern finger at Helen. “Look, you know I’m bad at all this wilderness excursion stuff. I’m not Will, or Biggie. Your clothes aren’t going to be properly dry for hours, and most of my spare stuff won't fit you. It’s bad enough that we lost your pack in the river and aren’t expecting the others to be in radio range until morning. If you get all, I don’t know,” she paused and waved a hand around in circles for a moment, searching for the right word, “hypothermic or whatever and can’t tell me what to do to help you, we’re both screwed.”

Helen nodded seriously. “You’re right, Kate. I most sincerely apologise," she said as she reached up a hand. "Unfortunately I’m… I'm not very good at being the patient. The others are used to it by now, I'm afraid, so sometimes I forget to reign it in. Here, why don’t you help me up so I can get into that and keep warm while you continue building up the fire.”

After blinking at her for a moment in surprised yet frustrated silence, Kate quickly bent to shake out and open the sleeping bag. Then she took Helen’s hand and had to brace Helen's elbow as she wobbled to her feet. Helen was being careful not to place her bandaged foot back down in the dirt, and it meant Kate had to step in closer to be an effective living crutch. Her body still felt warm against Kate's at least, taking a weight off Kate's mind by proving her assessment of her shivering was correct.

“I know everyone says doctors make bad patients, but sheesh,” Kate said with a roll of her eyes once Helen was up and steady. "Besides, I think we can both agree that I'm more of an independent contractor than another one of your employees. You should let me help you more, Magnus. You don't have to be the boss all of the damn time."

Helen’s gaze snapped to hers. They stood locked together precariously above the sleeping bag, Helen's head bent slightly to look down at Kate. Suddenly uncertain, Kate licked her lips and then swallowed hard when Helen’s gaze slipped lower.

"So. How do you wanna...?" she asked awkwardly, and the moment broke. Suddenly they were moving again as if nothing had happened and Kate was bracing Helen’s arm again as she lowered herself down. Then she helped Helen to straighten the sleeping bag carefully around her legs and injured foot.

“There,” Helen said once she was settled. Her voice was a little breathless and she continued to fuss with the sleeping bag without looking up at Kate. “That wasn’t so bad.”

Suddenly feeling uncomfortable hovering over Helen, Kate turned on her heel and crouched back down by the fire.

“Nah, nothing to it,” she agreed as she reached for a fresh stick to poke into the flames.

*

“Hey, you awake?” Kate asked later. She stayed still and kept her voice low just in case Helen really had dropped off. When there was no response she relaxed a little began to crush the rubbish from their makeshift dinner into a ball.

The crinkling of the food packets seemed, at last, to make Helen stir.

“Kate? Kate, you should be in a sleeping bag,” she said, her voice groggy from dozing off.

“Would if I could, Magnus. But I'm afraid you drowned the other one,” Kate replied with a chuckle as she fed some more wood into the fire and shoved their rubbish into a spare pocket of her pack.

Helen just hummed thoughtfully. The zing of a zipper sung out through their little clearing, audible to her even over the crackling of what had become a rather enthusiastic little campfire.

“There’s plenty of room in this one,” Helen said. Her head emerged from the top of the bag as she spoke, hair already sleep tousled where it wasn’t pressed stiff and flat from the river water. Even smudged with dirt and in disarray, her beauty struck Kate anew as a hand emerged to beckon her closer.

Swallowing hard, Kate shook her head. She wasn't sure if she'd imagined that moment between them earlier, and she didn't want to give the game away if she'd misunderstood. “They’re not exactly built for two,” she said instead.

Hurrying, she bustled around to finish clearing up instead of waiting for Helen to answer. Then she shoved her pack back away from the fire again so she could return to her seat opposite Helen. But Helen snagged her ankle in a firm grip as she walked past, tugging her to a halt.

“All of the Sanctuary sleeping bags are sized to accommodate some of our larger Abnormal residents. I think the two of us can most likely fit in here with only a modicum of squeezing," Helen said primly. But her voice caught slightly on the last word and she took a deep breath after, only to pause again and cough delicately into her sleeve before turning earnest eyes on Kate. “I’m not the only one who needs to avoid catching a chill. Besides which, we could probably both use the extra body heat right about now.”

Kate opened and shut her mouth silently. Even if it was awkward, Helen was right. There wasn’t really an alternative, even if Kate could already feel her cheeks heating over the suggestion. As high in the mountains as they were, a fire wasn’t going to provide her with enough warmth until dawn either unless Kate risked breaking her neck going stumbling around for more firewood in the dark. Not to mention there were only so many layers of dry clothing left for her to bundle into.

Sighing, she shed her jacket and boots in implicit acceptance and Helen released her to finish opening the sleeping bag. Getting in without jostling Helen proved impossible, but eventually they found a way to fit themselves together so that Helen could tug the zipper back up along Kate’s back.

The sensation of the zipper sliding up her spine made Kate shiver. This close to each other she could feel Helen’s arms tighten a little around her in response, and she tried to swallow hard a few times. But her mouth felt like the Sahara desert all of a sudden, and she wasn't game to try moving around very much. Even if meant she could reach her water bottle where it sat on Helen's other side.

“Is this...,” Helen started to ask. To Kate's surprise, her voice sounded just as tentative as Kate felt. Helen's mouth had ended up tucked in beside Kate’s ear and her breath was warm on Kate’s skin, making Kate shudder for a moment before she rallied enough to reply with a steady voice

“Yes, fine,” she said brusquely. But she let her hand slip down into a more comfortable position against Helen’s waist and wiggled closer. Once she had, the warmth of the fire and Helen’s body began to fully seep into her. “It’s- This is fine.”

“Well, then,” Helen said. Her voice was muffled by Kate’s hair, and the absurdity hit her all at once. Kate found that she couldn’t help herself, she snorted with laughter and Helen quickly joined in. Suddenly the sleeping bag didn’t seem so small as they held tight to each other and began to crack up.

“Hey, look. At least out of everybody on the team I could end up stuck in the middle of nowhere with, I’m glad it’s you,” Kate finally said, gasping the words out between giggles. "Though I suppose Biggie might be warmer to cuddle. All that fur."

“True. Though nobody else would be small enough to fit in here with me,” Helen said, still laughing.

“We should-,” Kate started the say, pausing to snicker once more before continuing. “We should probably make everyone carry two bags with them in the future. Just in case another pack gets sacrificed to a watery grave.”

Helen nodded, still chuckling helplessly. “A certain someone will probably sabotage my favourite tea if I suggest it, though. And it's not as if it's of any use to us tonight.”

“Well, no. But I suppose this isn't so bad,” Kate admitted as she finally began to calm. She shuffled them around slightly, until she was curled in the centre of Helen's arms and Helen’s injured ankle was in the outermost corner of the bag when Kate couldn't accidentally knock into it. Helen began to stroke a hand up and down Kate’s arm once they were re-arranged to Kate's liking, the movement almost idle until she hit a seam on Kate's shirt and jerked her hand away again with a hiss that made Kate sigh. “Still sore? Maybe we should have bandaged them.”

“The skin isn’t broken, there was no need,” Helen said distractedly, echoing her words from earlier in the day.

“Yeah, so what?” Kate asked. She tipped her head up, trying to focus her eyes on Helen’s face despite the darkness and the backlighting from the fire. “At least you couldn’t forget to be careful with them if they were wrapped up.”

Helen pulled back far enough for light from the fire to spill over her shoulder, letting Kate see her thoughtful look - and the way her eyes had drifted down again to Kate's mouth. Something coiled in Kate’s belly when Helen didn’t look away, and she couldn't help but wonder whether Helen thought Kate couldn’t see her clearly in the darkness of the forest or if she just didn’t care.

When Helen opened her mouth, Kate snuck a hand up and laid a finger against her lips before she could speak. “Would you just let me take care of you already?” she asked, catching only a glimpse of the now familiar conflicted expression on Helen's face before Kate leant in and pressed a gentle kiss against the corner of her mouth.

She felt Helen’s fingers clench in the sleeve of her shirt again but there was no hiss of pain this time and no move to push her away. So Kate took her time drawing back, trying in vain to swallow down the butterflies suddenly dancing a jig in her belly.

“I really don’t mind,” Kate murmured, and Helen’s face softened. Kate watched, fascinated, as the shadows of Helen’s eyelashes danced across her cheeks when her eyes fluttered shut and then opened again.

“Well, alright then,” Helen replied, equally quiet. “I suppose I am injured, and you're already doing a wonderful job of taking charge.”

“Damn straight,” Kate said indignantly. But she stroked her hand up from Helen’s waist and across her back as she said it, smoothing skin and fabric alike. And when she leant in again, Helen obligingly turned her face and tucked herself in close so that Kate could kiss her properly and keep them warm.


End file.
